Questions about CPJ's Turkey report? Here, our answers.

Last week's release
of CPJ's report on Turkey's press freedom crisis generated widespread domestic media
coverage and sparked a robust public debate. The response from Turkish journalists
and commentators was largely positive, but there were some negative reactions as
well. Turkey's Justice Ministry has promised a detailed response this week.
Here is a summary of the criticism we received during several days of intensive
media interviews, along with our responses.

CPJ has a political agenda in Turkey. Not true. CPJ has worked for 31 years to defend the rights of
journalists around the world. We are non-partisan, non-ideological, and
independent. We do not accept any government funding. As journalists ourselves,
our sole interest is ensuring that our media colleagues in Turkey are able to
work freely, without intimidation or the threat of jail. As background, the
last time our organization was this active in Turkey was in the 1990s when authorities
jailed as many as 78 journalists as part of a widespread crackdown. Many of
those jailed at the time were journalists who wrote from a religious
perspective and were persecuted for their views. When we included them on our
list of imprisoned journalists, we were harshly criticized by the Turkish
government--under different leadership at the time--and by much of the media
establishment. We stood our ground and fought for the release of every single
imprisoned journalist. Today we are guided by the same principles. No
journalist should be imprisoned for his or her work.

You were duped
by your Turkish researchers. False. The
report was an organization-wide project and was written by experienced senior
staff, under the coordination of our editorial director, Bill Sweeney, and our
Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, Nina Ognianova. Our team of highly
capable Turkish researchers, led by Özgür
Öğret, was responsible for researching the cases of jailed journalists,
which is an appendix to the main report. The case research was rigorous. Over a
four-month period, our researchers reviewed lists of detainees compiled by the
Justice Ministry and local and international groups, examined indictments, consulted
underlying legal documents, interviewed defense lawyers, spoke with journalists
covering the cases, and evaluated the published, firsthand accounts of the
defendants themselves. Öğret traveled to New York to work alongside our
editorial director throughout the editing process. Our research team provided the
data, but CPJ staff made the determination on how to classify each imprisoned
case. In compiling the main report, CPJ staff traveled to Turkey on three
fact-finding missions in 2011 and 2012, meeting with dozens of journalists,
analysts, and lawyers. The report was an institutional effort and as executive
director I take full responsibility for its contents.

No one can trust your data because your last report cited
just eight Turkish journalists in jail. In December 2011,
CPJ published its prison census, which we have been compiling and publishing
annually since 1985. This was not a special report on Turkey, but rather a
global survey of every country in the world. In an open letter
to Prime Minister Erdoğan on
December 22, 2011, CPJ wrote that we believed there were many other journalists
in prison in Turkey, in addition to the cases confirmed in the census. We
committed to carrying out a systematic review of those cases to determine
whether they were in fact jailed for their professional work as journalists. We
have now completed that review and have confirmed that a total of 61 journalists
are in jail in Turkey for their work. We also researched an additional 15 cases
but did not classify them as confirmed either because there was insufficient
information to determine whether they were jailed for their journalism, or because
they may have been jailed in retaliation for their political activism. CPJ's next
global prison census will be published in December.

It's absurd for CPJ to suggest that Turkey is more repressive
than Iran or Eritrea. It is absurd, and we would
never suggest it. What we reported, based on diligent research, is the
objective fact that Turkey has more journalists in jail than either country. We
recognize that Turkey is an emerging democracy, economic success story, and regional
leader. The public debate about our report indicates just how lively and
vibrant the media in Turkey can be. However, the nation's inarguable position
as the world's leading jailer of journalists invites inevitable comparisons to
other countries that jail journalists.

Turkey's press
freedom problems involve more than imprisonments. We agree. Although the imprisonment of journalists is a focal point, our
report explores a broad range of threats to freedom of the press. We examine
the routine prosecution of journalists on criminal charges related to
newsgathering; the use of government pressure to instill self-censorship in the
media; and the failure to reform vaguely worded penal and anti-terror statutes
that are applied regularly against the press.

The language you used in your report was unduly harsh
and insulting. We respectfully disagree. The report was critical but
fair. It was meticulously researched and fact-checked and our conclusions and
analyses were supported by detailed evidence. We used direct but measured
language to communicate the reality that the Turkish media is currently under
extreme pressure and that dozens of journalists are now in jail for their work.

CPJ is not the judge and jury. It's up to the Turkish
courts to determine guilt and innocence. We agree.
Our role is to review the available evidence and to make informed public
judgments about whether the facts support the very serious charges leveled
against the journalists cited in our report. We hope that Turkish authorities
will carry out a similar exercise and decline to pursue cases in which there is
insufficient evidence to win convictions. While we believe that none of the 61
cases have merit, we also are ready to examine any new evidence that arises. If
warranted, we are prepared to adjust our conclusions. We are asking to meet
with Turkish officials in Ankara next month and we are hopeful that a
productive exchange will take place.

Joel Simon is the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He has written widely on media issues, contributing to Slate, Columbia Journalism Review, The New York Review of Books, World Policy Journal, Asahi Shimbun, and The Times of India. He has led numerous international missions to advance press freedom. His book, The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom, will be released November 11, 2014. Follow him on Twitter @Joelcpj. His public GPG encryption key can be found here.

You should write an article about America, I know at least two "free journalists" who were silenced by obama:

1. Terry Jones, a christian "journalist" was stopped by obama as he wanted to burn a quran to promote peace and happiness. IT WAS A DIRECT INTERVENTION IN THE RIGHTS OF THIS PULITZER JOURNALIST! HE IS AS GOOD AS THE TERRORIS- ähh no JOURNALISTS IN THE LIST ABOVE!

2. SAM BACILE aka Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a journalist from egypt working for the m ss d made a great fantasy film prduction about the prophet Mohammed. It was a hit in the WASG world, but he is in prison now! Obama has done it! FREE HIM!

Well I like Fox Hunter's style of play -very popular these days among the ruling party politicians and their "comissar" so-called "journalists".

There are 2 books published against Erdoğan = Press freedom

Press freedom can be debated in Turkey = Press freedom

LOL. Let's take the very same logic and paint it elsewhere:

There is a parliament in Iran = Democracy

Elections in Russia where total votes equal to %140 = Democracy

I know you were looking for this sinisterly Islamic, ultra-agressively capitalistic government for almost a century now, and now that you've got it, it has to thrive like a pool of bacteria does on a creamy cake. It should trample anything it encounters like a toddler without showing any mature emotions towars it -it shouldn't have been where the feet were headed anyway.

Such unabashed march was not even experienced when AKP and its zealous supporter base's favorite topic -28 February period was in full force against the religious journalists and politicians.

Revenge, or thanks to AKP's 10-year-long gradually vigorized despotism proved us we could easily coin the term "revanchism" at macro scale is undoubtedly one of the most pressurizing factors on the hard spring called "society". No matter which ideology it could be implemented by, the consequences are almost identical to each other -polarization and social conflict at varying levels.

So before attacking such study with un/misfounded beliefs -one could hardly call them ideas for they are far from reason-, I'd suggest taking a look at the mirror or at least try to imagine all of the parties in front of a mirror.

Until then, good night with the Google-imagable list of terrorists and two controversial books.

I do still remember Tayyip Erdogan swinging the book in his hand calling it "a bomb" during times of apprehension of Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener.

The government and the puppet media are lucky to have both released prior to CPJ's conclusion of the report.

The appeal court case against the kurdish tv-channel ROJ TV started monday 29th oct in CPH DK in Eastern High Court with 40 meetings planned.
The trial against ROJ TV is part of Erdogans and Turkeys surpression on journalists an the Kurdish issue.
I wear the CPJ-report report at every court meeting as an alarming jewelery.

- 2 parties in America = enough demo crazy
- EU is a noble price peace project= Sells more arms to the world than america --> Obama was the last noble price keeper. He must start a war to sell more guns than the EU!

You dont like Iran and Türkiye? Fine. Put away your masks and try to get the voters. NO external financing or promotion. Bring something new into politics and you will get the votes in Türkiye.

But with this games, you loose even more support. Your the 5th column, for whom?

@simonsen The PKK TV is nothing but propaganda. I am a Kurd myself, but they are not representing my nation. They sell dope, human, cigarettes and meat, coming from Afghanistan smuggled into Europe. They kill and oppress everyone who stands against them. So your support is for killing wannabe pol pot regime...

What I miss in your researches are the palestine reporters? Did you have a list of killed palestine journalist? Have you ever made a list of them? Or are you blind on the atrocities of the apartheid system in occupied Palestine?

@Foxhunter, Thursday in Eastern Court Cph the second Court meeting in the ROJ TV case an anonymous witness from the Danish Secret Service, PET was investigated. Funny enough he had written a report with somewhat the same information as you deliver. He told from the witness stand under oath that he his information are taken from U.S. open sources, such as the U.S. think tank Rand, Homeland Maryland's databases and NCTC. He also had statements from former PKK-members. But NO information about the other part of this unfortunate conflict, namely Turkey. But the turkish state terror never figures in those kind of databases, wonder why?
Although there is a conflict between two parts - the Kurdish people and the Turkish state - concentrating the prosecution only on the PKK.
In my democratic optic both sides has to be illuminated to assess a situation.